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Indian Trails Centering At 
Black Hawk's Village 



3y 
JOHN H. HAUBERG 



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T^eprinted from the 'Uransactions of the Illinois State Historical 
Society for the Year 1921. 









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Black Hawk's Watch Tower was a conspicuous landmark to all travellers 
coming from across Rock River. 



INDIAN TRAILS CENTERING AT BLACK HAWK'S VILLAGE. 

By John H. Haubehg. 

The facts set forth in the following paper were gathered during 
the last six years. In that time the writer has not neglected to see 
personally every man or woman claimed to have any knowledge of 
any Indian trail, or who was mentioned by others as probably having 
knowledge of a trail, and a diligent inquiry among the older residents 
of the counties of Rock Island, Henry and the northern part of Mercer 
County has been kept up. A liberal use was made of the automobile, 
and the method consistently followed was to make an appointment 
and take the person to the very spot which he knew, take photographs 
there, and carefully record the description given, as also all the side- 
lights in the way of a running narrative of the early-day life. This 
paper cannot, of course, give fully all these narratives. Nearly all of 
the informants had passed their three-score and ten, and some had 
passed the four score and ten years of life. Over and over again the 
writer would hear from their lips something like this : "If you had 
only started this a few years ago. Now nearly everyone that knew is 
dead", or one would say, "If you had begun this a year or two ago I 
could have directed you to a half dozen men who have since died". 
In practically every instance, the trail was fixed in the man's mind be- 
cause it crossed his father's farm; or that he plowed it up; used it as 
the path to the public school ; herded cattle over it ; hunted over it ; 
had seen straying bands of Indians using it ; that it was the common 
tradition among the pioneers that it was an Indian trail, and that it 
was not the kind of trail commonly made by animals or by white men. 

The Sauk and Mesquaki tribes, usually spoken of as the Sauk 
and Fox, formed a united nation. They had three villages about the 
vicinity of the mouth of Rock River. One of these, a Fox village, 
was on the west side of the Mississippi where Davenport, Iowa, now 
stands. The other two, both on the Illinois side, joined at the edges, 
but the distance from center to center of each village was about three 
and one-half miles as the crow flies. The one a Fox village, was 
located opposite the lower end of Rock Island, where the down-town 
part of the City of Rock Island now stands, and the other was the 
Sauk village which adjoined it to the south and extended to the blufif 
overlooking Rock River, known as Black Hawk's Watch Tower, 
practically all of the old Sauk village site also, is today included within 
the city limits of Rock Island, Illinois. 

This Sauk village was the home of the most prominent individuals 
of the United Nation. Both Black Hawk and Keokuk were born 
here. It had been the home of the former for seventy years when he 
was finally expelled in the contest known to history as the Black Hawk 



War. In its strictest sense, it was for possession of this particular 
village and its adjacent cornfields and pastures that the war was 
fought. 

Numerous mounds are scattered all about these Indian village 
sites. These mounds are believed to have been built by a people ante- 
dating the Sauk and Fox Indians and their immediate predecessors 
here, and it is probable that when the latter located here, they found 
the principal highways mentioned in this paper already existent. 

The Indian trails, sections of which are described in this paper, 
are the following: 

(1) The "Great Sauk Trail" or "Sauk and Fox Trail" which is 
of especial interest to us because the War Chief Black Hawk and his 
band used this trail regularly in going from their village at Rock 
Island, Illinois, to Fort Maiden, Amherstberg, Ontario, to secure the 
annuities which the British authorities continued to bestow upon them 
for services rendered during the War of 1812-'14. 

(2) The Indian and Military Trail, which was a short-cut from 
Rock Island to Oquawka, Illinois, on the Mississippi, fifty miles south- 
wards. It was a well known Indian trail, and its greatest use as a mil- 
itary trail was in the two campaigns of the Black Hawk War, 1831 
and 1832 respectively, when the Illinois militia marched over it, to 
Black Hawk's village. 

(3) The Indian trail up the east bank of the Mississippi from the 
Sauk and Fox villages at Rock Island, to their lead mines in north- 
western Illinois and Southwest Wisconsin. 

(4) The trail up Rock River toward Prophetstown, followed 
alike by Indians, and by the Illinois soldiers of 1832, with Capt. Abra- 
ham Lincoln in command of a company. 

(5) Indian trails about Moline and Rock Island; some of them 
doubtless branches of the main highways. 

Of the local trails, a section is pointed out by W. C. Wilson of 
Moline. Mr. Wilson says he has known this trace as an Indian trail 
for forty years. It is located in Prospect Park, near the east line of 
the park. It is visible, beginning at a point 150 feet west of the west 
line of Park 15th St. at 34th Ave., Moline, Illinois, and extends south- 
eastwards along the crest of the ridge. The ground here for forty-five 
paces is still covered with native timber of oak, hickory, etc., and has 
never been cultivated. The trail has recently been filled to a level with 
the surrounding ground, but it is easily followed because the natural 
soil here is dark, nearly black, and without stone or gravel, while the 
filling used was clay containing gravel and bits of crushed limestone. 
This trail would probably be one of the branches of the "Great Sauk 
Trail" and a short cut to the Fox villages where Rock Island and Dav- 
enport now stand, and to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island. It was 
doubtless used also by the Winnebagoes, whose village was 40 miles 
above the mouth of Rock River, as they came to the fort and to trade 
with George Davenport, whose establishment adjoined Ft. Armstrong. 
It is said (by Alex Craig, Moline,) that there was an excellent ford 
across Rock river opposite Blossomberg, on the section line between 
Sections eight and nine, Hampton Township, and the ford across 



Green river was less than a mile above this Rock river ford. It is 
probable that these fords had connection with the trail in Prospect 
Park. 

Another section of an old trail is located along the crest of Black 
Hawk's Watch Tower — a bluff of about 150 ft,, having a view of rare 
beauty overlooking Rock river. The trail is back (north of) of Indian 
Lovers' Spring and leads eastward to the creek. A few hundred 
yards eastward from the creek on a gentle rise of ground from Rock 
river, one may find at any time, numerous fragments of pottery and 
flints of the days of the Indians or their predecessors. The adjoining 
hill-tops have numerous mounds, probably of prehistoric age, and it is 
most likely that residents here, from prehistoric times, used the trail 
above mentioned in going to and from the Watch Tower. In his 
autobiography, Black Hawk says that this spot — the Watch Tower, 
to which his name had been applied, was a favorite resort for the 
Indians of his day. In our present day it is continued as a pleasure 
resort where tens of thousands go each year to enjoy the scene. This 
spot adjoins the city limits of Rock Island. 

The trail from the top of the Black Hawk Watch Tower, down to 
the Sauk village which lay at its foot, immediately to the west, is men- 
tioned by Mrs. Mary Brackett Durham, late of Rock Island, in a poem 
entitled "Black Hawk's Watch Tower", as follows : 

(5) "Among the boughs of that tall tree 

The chief oft climbed to hide 
And plan his raids, while he could see 
The country far and wide." 

(6) "There, unobserved by friend or foe, 

Above the Indian trail, 
His piercing eyes watched all below, 
Isle, meadow, hill and dale". 

(7) "Narrow and deep the war trail ran, 

Diagonally down, 
Well worn by rain and foot of man, 
Down to the old Sauk town". 

Mrs. Durham, author of the above lines, secured her informa- 
tion at first hand from Mrs. Lewis, (as per letter of Col. C. W. Dur- 
ham in the writer's possession), mother of George L. and Bailey 
Davenport. Mrs. Lewis was a member of the Col. George Davenport 
household on the island of Rock Island, for many years preceding the 
Black Hawk War, was a good friend of the Indians, and became well 
informed as to the various phases of their life here. 

The site of a section of the trail from Black Hawk's village to the 
Fox village and to Rock Island, is pointed out by Phil Mitchell of 
Rock Island. It is on "Spencer Place, Out Lot 1" City of Rock 
Island, and this small section of it runs from a point beginning at the 
east line of 19th street, forty-four paces south of the south line of 



Sixth Ave., and taking a northeasterly course which would strike 
Twentieth St. at the northwest corner of 20th street and Sixth Ave. 
The location of this part of the trail is in a lot, an acre or so in extent, 
upon which is one of Rock Island's substantial residences. The 
ground was originally owned by John W. Spencer, who at the time of 
the Black Hawk War had his log cabin located on the adjoining block 
on what is now the southwest corner of 7th Ave. and 19th St., and 
that as long as this property was in the hands of Mr. Spencer, and 
that of his nephew, Spencer Robinson, this deeply worn trail was left 
as a relic of the olden days, but that when the property passed from 
their hands the lot was graded and the trail obliterated. It is prob- 
able that by digging cross trenches, the exact course of this trail might 
be found. 

Another trail which may have run somewhat parallel to the above 
named, or may even be a part of the same trail, and which may be a 
section of the "Great Sauk Trail" to the Mississippi and beyond, 
crossing at Rock Island, is to be found near the crest of the ridge 
from the Watch Tower, and passing northwards toward the island of 
Rock Island. 

A part of this trail is preserved just within the east edge of old 
Dixon Cemetery, now within the city limits of Rock Island. Another 
section of it is still to be seen in the virgin woodlands a little to the north 
in the west edge of the n. e. ^4, Sec. 14, South Rock Island township, 
which is owned by the Tri-City Street Railway Co., then after cross- 
ing a cultivated field a distance of about 40 rods, still going northward 
one finds another well preserved section of this trail in the woodland. 
To find this last mentioned section of the trail, start at the corner on 
the east side of Fourteenth Street, at the south side of Thirty-seventh 
Avenue, city of Rock Island, and go south one hundred sixty feet ; 
thence east seven hundred sixty feet, and you will find yourself right 
in the trail, and it is plainest as you travel northwards on it. 

On the testimony of Edwin Brashar and David Sears, both octo- 
genarians, and both of whom grew to manhood in this locality, this 
trail has always been known as an Indian trail. Mr. Brashar stated 
that it led from the Watch Tower to where the saw mill was on the 
Mississippi at 24th St., Rock Island, which is opposite the island of 
Rock Island. 

It is interesting to note that in 1908, when the grandson of Black 
Hawk visited here, Mr. Sears found him at the top of this same ridge 
looking for the trail back to the Down Town of Rock Island. This 
grandson of the old war chief was born here and was quite a boy at the 
time of their expulsion through the Black Hawk War, in 1832. This 
trail, since the early white settlements here, has not been used as a 
public highway. 

At page 26 of Armstrong's "The Sauks and the Black Hawk 
War" is to be found an account of a fence built of post and poles, 
extending from Rock river near the Watch Tower, northward for 
four miles to the Mississippi, to opposite the foot of the island of 
Rock Island. The southern part of this fence was kept up by the 
Sauks, and the northern part of it by the Foxes. Mr. Armstrong 




The Indian Trail from Black Hawk's Watch Tower to Fort Armstrong, 
37th Ave. Rock Island projected east 800 feet would intersect this Trail. 




The Section of an Indian Trail in Prospect Park Moline, 111., as located 
by W. C. Wilson, who is standing in the trail. 




The trail down the right bank of Rock River between the Watch Tower 
and where the Mississippi and Rocl\^ Rivers join. Black Hawk's village 
bordered this trail. 



continues: "Immediately west of, and following the west line of this 
fence was a well beaten and extensively travelled road, leading- from 
Saukenuk (the Sauk village) to the Mississippi, or the island, where 
Fort Armstrong and the trading house of Col. George Davenport 
stood". Beyond question, the trail or road referred to by Armstrong 
is identical with the one to be seen today in Dixon Cemetery and 
northwards. Mr. Armstrong is believed to have gained his knowledge 
of this trail from Hon. Bailey Davenport, son of the Indian trader, 
who came in 1816 and who had his post on Rock Island. (See page 
8, "The Sauks and the Black Hawk War", by Armstrong.) 

Another trail which should be mentioned, is one which follows 
closely the right bank of Rock river, from the Watch Tower to the 
Mississippi, a distance of about two and one-half miles. Today it is 
the usual fisherman's path. As you walk toward the Mississippi, you 
will find at your right hand, for more than half the distance, a high 
bank of, say thirty feet, while immediately at your left you pass the 
row-boats, canoes and fish-boxes of the natives of today. 

By the side of this trail one finds several fine springs from which 
the Sauk Indians, whose village was strung along these shores, got a 
part of their excellent water supply, as mentioned by Black Hawk in 
his autobiography (p. 62). 

This trail would be intimately associated with the life of the 
local Indian residents. In the mind's eye one can see, on a certain 
early morning in September, 1814, a throng of braves and spectators 
hurrying to the battle at Credit Island, opposite the mouth of Rock 
river, which Maj. Zachary Taylor, afterwards president, was hope- 
lessly waging against British artillery and an allied force under 
Black Hawk of 1000 to 1500 Indians, and again, a certain night of 
April, 1831, when Black Hawk's people, thoroughly frightened, fled 
under cover of darkness to the west of the Mississippi. There was a 
large force of U. S. Regulars on their right at Fort Armstrong and 
another force of 1500 Illinois militia a few miles below at their left. 
The Indians numbering perhaps a thousand all told, were taking their 
ponies, dogs, baggage and all with them, and not only the trail but 
every serviceable canoe was no doubt crowded. 

Of the Indian trail up the east bank of the Mississippi above 
Rock Island, Dr. William H. Lyford of Port Byron, Illinois, reports 
as follows : "The river road up here from Rock Island is the oldest 
road in Rock Island County and is on the old Indian trail between 
Black Hawk's Watch Tower and the lead mines around Galena. 
Sometimes the Indians went by way of the other side, but this (east) 
side had the main road. It was the only road through here, and 
Archibald Allen, who located on this trail in 1828, (in Section 24, 
Port Byron Township), traded with the Indians for their furs and 
skins, and carried mail on this road or trail between Fort Armstrong 
and Galena. December 30, 1833, he was appointed Post Master and 
kept the post office at his house. It was called Canaan and was the 
first post office in Rock Island County exclusive of the one on the 
island of Rock Island". 



8 

"My father, Dr. Jeremiah H. Lyford, M. D., in 1837 built his 
log cabin along the river right on this trail. Father would be away 
days at a time, looking after his patients in Iowa Territory and in 
Whiteside and other counties in Illinois. Mother and I would be 
home alone and the Indians would stop on their way up and down the 
river. Later, the stage line, Rock Island to Galena, followed this 
trail also". 

Of this trail Miss Mary Lydia Kelly, an octogenarian of Rock 
Island, had the following to say: "My father came to this county in 
1841. We lived on the Mississippi two and a half miles above Cor- 
dova. As to Indian trails I know when I was a little girl I used to go 
from our house to our neighbor's in an Indian trail. It was right on 
the bank of the river and was a well trodden trail. It was wide 
enough for one man to go single file". 

This trail for twenty miles from Rock Island was followed by an 
eager throng of Sauk and Fox warriors, on the occasion of Maj. 
John Campbell's expedition up the Mississippi in July, 1814. "The 
savages were seen on shore in quick motion ; canoes filled with Indians 
passed to the (Campbells) island, * * * the Indians firing from the 
island and the shore under cover", (p. 749, Western Annals, 1850). 
In this engagement sixteen Americans were killed. Campbells Island 
is about nine miles above Rock Island. The head of the rapids is 
about eight miles farther up-stream, at LeClaire, la. — Port Byron, 
Ills., and here the determined Indians overtook the Contractor's and 
the Sutler's boats which would have fallen to them (Niles Register, 
Vol. 6, p. 429), but for the fact that to the surprise of all concerned, 
they here found the large protected gunboat the "Governor Clark", 
anchored along the shore. The Indians evidently were in hot pursuit, 
both in canoes, and along the trail, which on this occasion was liter- 
ally a "War-path". 

"At the time of the (Campbells Island) battle, Captain Yeiser 
in the gunboat (Gov. Clark) from Ft. Shelby, had arrived at the head 
of the Rapids, where he met the Contractor's boat, still in advance, 
and was fired on by the Indians, while lying at anchor near the 
shore in consequence of an unfavorable wind. The attack of the 
Indians induced him to haul off, and anchor beyond the reach of their 
small arms". (Page 443, History of the Late War, by McAfee, 1816.) 

The two trails, the one from Oquawka, and the one from the east, 
joined on the south bank of Rock river opposite Black Hawk's village. 
The place of junction was somewhere about the line between the east 
and west halves of the Northwest quarter of Section twenty-three, 
Black Hawk Township, Rock Island County. 

Mr. William O'Neal of Milan, 111., said: "The old Indian ford 
is really right in front of the main street of Milan. I could take you 
right across the (Ills, and Mich.) canal bank and show you where the 
ford is. It was right about where the old power dam was. There 
was a good rock bottom way across. I got this from Mrs. Ben Goble. 
Her father (Joshua Vandruff, after whom Vandruff Island is named) 
built a cabin right beside the Indian trail (in 1828) and the ford 
across the northern part (main channel) of the river was between the 




The Ford across Rock River rapids to Black Hawk's Village site. 
was not a better Ford on any River in the World." 



"There 



present wagon bridge and the railroad bridge, about where the Davis 
Power House is now". 

Rock river rapids at this point flow over a bed of flat rock, which 
provides a fordable bottom of a width of a hundred yards or more. 
Rev. Peter Cartwright, the "backwoods preacher", (in his autobiog- 
raphy (1856) at page 334) mentions this ford and quotes the stranger 
who crossed just before him as saying that "There was no better ford 
on any river in the world, and that there was not the least danger on 
earth". 

Of all the Indian trails mentioned herein, the "Sauk and Fox 
Trail" or "Great Sauk Trail" is the most widely known. The Chicago 
Historical Society has plats showing where it crossed certain sections 
in the State of Michigan, and also plats showing its location in some 
parts of Illinois. The Cook County, Illinois, Forest Reserve has at 
Chicago Heights, a wooded lot bearing the name "Sauk Trail Preserve." 
One hears mention of this trail among the residents of northern Indi- 
ana, about the sand dunes ; Mr. J. F. Steward has an article entitled 
the "Sac and Fox Trail" in Vol. IV, Journal of the Ills. State Hist. 
Soc, and at page 158 thereof he shows "Homan's map of 1687", 
which has a trail marked upon it, which is believed to be the same 
trace, later known as the "Sac and Fox Trail" or the "Great Sauk 
Trail". 

When the writer began his pursuit of Indian trails, he started 
with the idea that they were of rare occurrence; that Indians roamed 
over the country regardless of any beaten highway. As we had heard 
of only two trails, the one connecting old Yellow Banks (Oquawka) 
with Black Hawk's village, and "The Great Sauk Trail", we began 
by asking old settlers if they knew anything about "the" Indian trail. 
We soon changed to asking if they knew of "any" Indian trail, for we 
learned that Indians, like white folks, prefer when travelling, to go 
over courses which are reputed to be the best, all things considered, 
and that there were principal highways, each with its diverging 
branches leading to other Indian villages ; to favorite hunting grounds, 
or merely a different route to the same place because of a diflFerent 
contour of the country. They had many trails, many of them perhaps 
but a foot in width, threading their way for miles upon miles through 
the prairie grass and through wooded country, while others, travelled 
probably for centuries and eroded by heavy rains, became wide and 
deeply worn, and in places the travellers would march beside the old, 
washed out trail, until there would be a dozen distinct, deeply worn 
traces side by side. Mrs. Kinzie, writing of this type of highways in 
northern Illinois in the early days, says : "We were to pursue a given 
trail for a certain number of miles, when we should come to a crossing 
into which we were to turn, taking an easterly direction ; after a time, 
this w^ould bring us to a deep trail leading straight to Hamilton's. 
In this open country there are no landmarks. One elevation is so ex- 
actly like another, that if you lose your trail there is almost as little 
hope of regaining it as of finding a pathway in the midst of the ocean. 
The trail, it must be remembered, is not a broad highway, but a nar- 
row path, deeply indented by the hoofs of the horses on which the 



10 

Indians travel in single file. So deeply is it sunk in the sod which cov- 
ers the prairies, that it is difficult, sometimes, to distinguish it at a 
distance of a few rods". (Waubun, c. XIV.) 

The Sauk and Fox trail of which we are writing, took its name 
from the Sauk and Fox Indians, who had their permanent abode in 
the vicinity where Rock River joins the Mississippi. It retained this 
name at least as far east as to Fort Maiden, at Amhertsburg, Ontario. 
One should confidently expect that it joined with other trails in an 
unbroken chain, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. 

We will start the route of the "Sauk and Fox Trail" at the 
Mississippi. From times immemorial these Indians had regarded the 
island of Rock Island as a bit of an earthly paradise. In the cave nea 
its lower end dwelt a good spirit in the form of a large swan (Black- 
Hawk's autobiography, p. 61). From this island we will cross the 
"slough" probably by swimming part way, then take one of the trails 
mentioned above in a southerly direction to the rapids of Rock river, 
passing through the Indian villages on the way there, ford Rock 
river to the south shore, and turn eastwards. It is just one mile to 
Mill Creek. Thomas J. Murphy of Coal Valley, 111., is authority for 
the location of the ford across this stream. He says (Interview of 
Apr. 9, 1917. "The Indian trail crossed right where the present pub- 
lis highway crosses", i. e. on the middle line of the north half of Sec- 
tion twenty-four. The creek bed here is of flat rock. Mr. Murphy 
says that after crossing the creek here the trail turned northeasterly 
to the shore of Rock river, which it followed for about three and a half 
miles to near Coal Valley creek, where it crossed that creek about the 
center of Section twenty-two, Coal Valley Twp., where it turned due 
south about a half mile to the point of the prominent bluff in the 
southeast corner of the southwest quarter of Section twenty-two, Coal 
Valley Twp., on the Charles Evener farm. 

We will retrace our course to Mill Creek. Two miles almost due 
east of the creek is a rise of ground forming a ridge of about one and 
a half miles in length, paralleling Rock river, and affording a fine 
view of the country on both sides. David W. Hunt of Moline, Ills., 
(interview of Feb. 3, 1921,) said: "I came to this part of the country 
in 1847, and it was in 1847 or '48 that I saw the Indian trail going 
over the sand mound near Rock river, east of what they called Cam- 
den Mills, now Milan. It was very distinct and went east and west, 
right up over the top of the hill, parallel with the present public road, 
but north of it". 

"It was very distinct and was well worn and looked different from 
similar trails I'd seen. Folks said it was an Indian trail". 

"At the time the Drury farm, which was at the lower end of the 
sand mound, was the only house between Camden Mills and the 
Glenn's in Colona Township in Henry County (a distance of nine 
miles)". 

Messrs. W. C. Wilson and Alec Craig, both of Moline, Ills., took 
the writer to Coal Valley creek in Section twenty-two. At about forty 
rods north of the center line of the section a private bridge spans the 
creek. Here, said they, is where the Frink & Walker Stage line ford- 




Here the great Sauk Trail left the level of the high prairie country and 
descended into the valley of Rock River but a few miles from Black Hawk's 
village. Messrs. J. N. Huntoon and Charles Evener on the farm of the latter. 



11 

ed the creek and Mr. Wm. Killing, who owned this place, also forded 
here until he built this bridge, and we think that in all probability the 
Indian trail crossed the creek here, and then turned south a half mile 
to the foot of the bluff, up which it then proceeded". 

The best vouched-for part of the "Great Sauk Trail" in this 
vicinity, is at the top of the ridge, starting on the Charles Evener 
farm in the south edge of Section twenty-two. Our first positive tes- 
timony to this location was by John N. Huntoon, of Rock Island, 
Ills., (Interview of June 30, 1916), who said, "Nathaniel Huntoon, 
my father, pointed out this hill top to me and said that in 1831, when 
he came here as advance agent for the Andover colony, to select a 
mill-site on Edwards river, he followed the Indian trail, and slept in 
the trail, at this point one night, with only a dog as a companion to 
keep the wolves off". Our next positive authority was T. J. Murphy, 
who said he used to be a great lad for hunting, and had followed the 
Indian trail all through here as far east as Sunny Hill, in Henry 
County. He came to this vicinity in 1857. Mr. John Campbell 
Bailey of Rural Township, Rock Island County, said he and his 
brother broke prairie hereabouts in 1853-'4 and '5, with six yoke of 
oxen to a single plow, and he knew the Indian trail. He said : "It 
was on the George Evener farm. It came up to Coal Valley, and 
passed along about where the public school house is". Mr. Austin 
Marshall, hotel keeper at LeClaire, la., knew the trail at this point 
also. He came here in 1842 when less than a year of age. He con- 
tinued : "We lived in the Washburne neighborhood, two miles east 
of Coal Valley, and a little north. I used to herd cows and I used to 
cross that Indian trail almost every day. This was three miles east 
of Coal Valley. It was washed out in places ; was six or eight inches 
deep and about eighteen inches wide. It was pretty near the line of 
the Rock Island & Peoria railroad". (Interview Feb. 14, 1921.) 

But best of all, the old trail itself is still there. For a distance of 
a quarter of a mile or more, one may walk in this very distinct trace. 
Approaching from the direction of the village of Coal Valley, one finds 
a fork in the trail. One course of it continues along the top of the hill, 
which it descends as shown in the accompanying picture. The other 
turns to the northward, leaving the hill-top by a more gradual descent, 
down the first hollow east of the western promontory of the hill. This 
last mentioned fork, from the depth and width of the trail, would indi- 
cate that it was the most used. From the point where they join, and 
southeasterly toward Coal Valley, the old trail is deeply worn. This 
ridge has never been plowed up. 

From the Charles Evener hill the trail follows the narrow crest 
of the hill, and crosses the Coal Valley school lot, according to the 
recollections of Messrs. T. J. Murphy and John C. Bailey, while 
Mr. John N. Huntoon remembered it as passing about seventy-five 
feet north of the school lot. All of them including W. C. Wilson and 
Austin Marshall remembered it as passing southeasterly from the Coal 
Valley school. 



12 

Two trips were taken to the northwest corner of Section five in 
Western Township, Henry County. Mr. W, C. Wilson hoped to 
find traces of the old trail at the very corner, while Mr. Huntoon, on 
a separate trip with the writer, pointed to its location several rods 
south of the comer, saying : "I was born in our log cabin which stood 
on the east side of the road a quarter of a mile or so, north of where 
the public school is now, in Section twenty-nine, Colona township, 
and lived there until I was thirty years of age. I used to herd cattle 
on the prairies all over this part of the country and so passed over the 
Indian trail thousands of times, and I can tell you exactly in places 
and in some others I can tell pretty closely where it was." 

"From the top of the Evener hill, the trail passed back on the top 
of the ridge, and passed just north of the road where it passes the Coal 
Valley school, and continues in a southeasterly course. I can follow 
as far as Cambridge, excepting for a couple of miles, where I was not 
so familiar with it". 

"In the northwest quarter of Section five, Western township, is 
the Wes. Crampton place, on the east side of the road. One day I 
was hunting cattle horseback, and was thrown from the saddle very 
violently, right into the old Indian trail. It was worn about two feet 
lower than the regular lay of the land. This spot was next south of 
Crampton's barnyard". 

Mr. Huntoon then took us to Shaffer Creek, near the east edge 
of Section five. Western township, a quarter of a mile or so south of 
the north Hne of the said section and showed where the Indian trail 
came down the slope toward the creek. At this point we met two men 
who were leaving the adjoining field with their teams. We hailed them, 
and one of them, an employe on the farm, said, "Henry Washburn 
who just died recently, told me the old Indian trail passed up the hill 
over there (pointing toward the east side of the creek) and I found 
an arrow-head there the other day". Henry Washburn came here in 
1833". 

The next location to the southeastward was pointed out by Mr. 
Huntoon. It was at the old Denton farm, three miles east of Orion. 
Mr. Huntoon said : "This farm was laid out in lots in the early days 
and was called East LaGrange. Later, during the stage-coach days, 
there was an Inn here called the Buckhorn Inn. The old Indian trail 
crossed this farm, and in my judgment crossed about where the resi- 
dence stands, on the east side of the public road, and north of the R. 
I. & Peoria railway tracks, near the northwest corner of Section thirty, 
Osco township. 

Nine miles due east of old East LaGrange, at the northwest cor- 
ner of Section twenty-seven, Cornwall township, stood the "Brown 
church" of Presbyterian faith. On June 12th, 1918, we were guided 
to this spot by a party consisting of Mrs. Ella Hume Taylor, Miss 
Lydia Colby and Mrs. Dr. J. E. West, all of Geneseo, Ills. Mrs. West 
and Miss Colby were members of this church during their girlhood, 
and told of their parents pointing to the Indian trail over which the 
church was built. 



13 

Mrs. West said: "My father, Elijah Benedict, came here in 1855, 
He gave this lot for the church, and he used to say, as we would get 
out of the buggy at church, 'That's the old Indian trail', and Uncle 
Albert (A. J. Benedict) used to say the Pottawatomies took this trail 
going between Rock Island and Peoria, and that the trail ran diag- 
onally from the Brown church to Spring Creek, but I cannot tell you 
where the trail touched Spring creek". The brown church was so 
called because it was painted brown. It has long since been torn down. 

Miss Lydia Colby guided us to a spring, about three miles south- 
west of the Brown church, in Section four. Burns township, thirty 
rods or so west of the public highway, south of the small creek which 
flows easterly about midway of the north and south lines of the sec- 
tion. Miss Colby said : "My knowledge of the Indian trail comes 
through Mrs. Lucinda Clark. She was buried last week. She told 
me the trail passed by this spring, and that the Indians stopped here 
to refresh themselves". The spring is still flowing, and drains into the 
nearby creek bed. 

Miss Colby then took us to "Hickory Point", a hill on the public 
road, at the east edge of Section fourteen, Cornwall township. She 
said : "This point, too, was pointed out to me by Mrs. Lucinda Clark 
as a place over which the Indian trail passed". Later Miss Colby 
wrote as follows : "James A. Clark of Geneseo, son of Mrs. Lucinda 
Clark, remembers well seeing the Indian trail along the south side of 
Hickory Point. The trail was grass-grown but was sunken a foot 
and a half, and perhaps two to three feet wide. From Hickory Point 
the trail led northeast to the marshes north of Annawan. There in 
the marshes the Indians used to camp as late as fifty-five years ago". 

We made more or less diligent inquiry at Cambridge, Kewanee, 
Atkinson, Annawan, Sheffield and as far east as Wyanet, as also 
among the farmers who lived between these points, for people who 
might be able to locate the site of the Sauk and Fox trail to the east 
from the old Brown church, mentioned above, but were unsuccessful. 

Sheffield is about fifteen miles east of the Brown church, and at 
this point the trail may be pursued on the authority of N. Matson, 
who says : "The trail passed through Bureau County almost in an 
east and west direction, crossing Coal creek immediately north of 
Sheffield, Main Bureau east of Woodruff's, passing near Maiden and 
Arlington in the direction of Chicago". (Reminiscences of Bureau 
County, 1872, p. 95.) 

H. C. Bradley says this Sauk and Fox trail was "Followed by 
Gen. Scott's army in 1832, from Chicago to the Mississippi river". 
He also says : "The last time Indians were seen on this trail was in 
1837 when the last of the Indians were being removed from Michigan 
to the Mississippi. Mrs. James G. Everett tells us she was on the 
occasion of the passing through the (Bureau) county of the last large 
body of Indians, teaching school just west of Princeton. She was 
then new in the west and knew but little of Indian character. She 
was occupied with her school duties when the red men began sud- 
denly to surround the building. She was terribly frightened, but some 
of the children had heard at home of the Indians going to pass that 



14 

day and explained to their teacher that they would not harm them, 
and in a little while the cavalcade passed along". (History of Bureau 
County, Bradley editor, 1885, p. 271.) 

Jesse W. Weik in an interesting article in which he speaks of the 
work of James M. Bucklin, Chief Engineer of the Illinois and Michi- 
gan canal, quotes the latter as saying: "While we were encamped 
on the (Calumet) river, on one occasion during our protracted stay, 
about two hundred Sac and Fox Indians on horseback passed on a 
trail not more than a hundred yards from our camp, without turning 
their faces to the right or to the left, on their way to Fort Maiden, for 
arms and ammunition. No doubt they marked us for their own, as 
the Sac or Blackhawk war was then about due, but was only post- 
poned for a year by the unexpected arrival at Fort Armstrong, Rock 
Island, of General Gaines with two or three companies of artillery". 
(p. 343, Vol. VII, Journal of the 111. State Hist. Soc.) 

We are not unmindful of A. M. Hubbard's (of MoHne) descrip- 
tion of the Sauk and Fox trail from Black Hawk's village, eastward, 
across Henry county, and on to Tiskilwa. We found no corroboration 
of his trace, except that through the Townships of Western, Osco, 
Munson and Cornwall, all in Henry county, we are but a mile apart, 
and at one place, in Munson township, our lines cross, his taking a 
more southerly course. (Hubbards is in Steward's write-up, Vol. IV, 
Journal 111. State Hist. Soc.) 

While pursuing the Sauk and Fox trail to the eastwards, we found 
that several of our Rock Island County men who located the trails for 
us, would mention Peoria as the destination of Indian travel over the 
trail past Coal Valley. Mr. John N. Huntoon believed it led to Peoria, 
and took us to the village of Andover, to which place he believed his 
father to have followed the trail in 1831. Here we made inquiry and 
were referred to George H. Johnson, as their most dependable author- 
ity. Mr. Johnson said: "I was born here in 1849. The Indian trail 
passed over that hill (pointing to it) and down there was a ford across 
Edwards river. Early settlers for many years before bridges were 
built here, used that ford. My dad and other old settlers all said this 
ford was on the old Indian trail. I remember it very well as a depres- 
sion worn down from travel. It passed on down into Knox County." 

The trail as indicated by Mr. Johnson passes through the center of 
Sections twenty-four, twenty-five and thirty-six, in Lynn township, 
Henry county. 

Mr. Johnson continued, "Wash. Hoyt was born just south of Ed- 
wards river, and now lives with his boys on a farm near New Windsor. 
He would know all about this Indian trail". (Interview Oct. 18, 1916.) 

We called on Mr. Wash. Hoyt, at his home near New Windsor, 
and he and his son accompanied us as guides. Mr. Hoyt said : 'T was 
born in Connecticut in 1836. We landed at Stephenson, now Rock 
Island, July 3d, 1842. My father, Edson Hoyt, attended the hanging 
of the Col. Davenport murderers at Rock Island. Nearly all the people 
from around Andover went. They were neighbors then. Anyone who 
lived ten or fifteen miles away was a neighbor in those days". 



15 

"The Indian trail went just east of WoodhuU. It might still be 
traced out where the timber was — the white oak grove". 

"The trail used to be very plain, I can locate it nearly all the way 
from Andover to Woodhull, but not south of Woodhull. For most 
part it was a single trail not more than four to six feet wide. In 
some places it was deeper than others, but on the level prairies it was 
still a depression. We lived about three quarters of a mile from it". 

"I do not know of anyone who knows the trail now. There are 
very few of those people left in the country, I can tell you". 

Mr. Hoyt took us to the southwest quarter of Section five, Clover 
township, Henry county. In the west edge of this quarter section is a 
farm house, forty rods or more north of the south line of this quarter 
section. Mr. Hoyt pointed to a depression or trace running from the 
farm buildings south to the east and west road between Sections five 
and eight, where we were, and said, that was the Indian trail. He then 
took us northward, and in Section thirty-two in Andover township he 
again pointed to the location of the trail, but did not show us any trace. 
He said : "The trail crossed Edwards river where the big willows are, 
about thirty rods west of the north and south road which runs straight 
into Andover". This places the ford about one and three-quarters 
miles east of the location pointed out by George H. Johnson. 

In his autobiography Black Hawk speaks of his trips to Peoria, 
to which place he doubtless followed a trail. 

In 1780, during the contest for possession of the Illinois country. 
Col. George Rogers Clark sent Col. John Montgomery on a punitory 
expedition against the Indians of the Upper Mississippi. Col. Mont- 
gomery with an allied force of three hundred fifty men of Virginia, 
Kentucky, French of the Illinois villages, and Spanish subjects from 
St. Louis, moved up the Illinois river by boats, to Peoria. Here they 
began their overland march to the Sauk village located about the mouth 
of Rock river — now within the city limits of Rock Island. They burned 
the Indian village, and then, because of a desperate shortage of food 
supplies, they retraced their way to Peoria. (Vol. VIII, Ills. Hist. Col- 
lection, page CXXXV.) It is probable that they came over the trail, via 
Andover, East LaGrange, and Coal Valley. They came in pursuit of a 
defeated Indian and British force, and therefore could make bold to 
travel over the best route, regardless of danger. 

For a further study of the Indian trails to the south of Woodhull, 
in Henry county, the reader is referred to the "History of Knox county, 
Ills.", by C. C. Chapman & Co., 1878, which has a township map of the 
county with the Indian trails traced on them. 

The trail from Black Hawk's village to Oquawka, in Henderson 
County, Illinois, was doubtless the principal highway of the Sauk and 
Fox to their possessions to the southwest, down into Iowa and Mis- 
souri. They owned all of Missouri north of the Missouri river. The 
Mississippi continues westerly from Rock Island for a distance of 
twenty-five miles ; then after flowing south for a dozen miles it turns 
southeasterly toward Oquawka. The trail under consideration was a 
short cut, twelve to fifteen miles nearer than if they had followed the 
Mississippi. The distance to Oquawka by trail was fifty miles. 



16 

This trail has been called the Indian and Military trail because 
both used it. It is a part of the route followed by Capt. Abraham 
Lincoln, in 1832, when the Illinois Volunteers marched from Beards- 
town to the mouth of Rock river in pursuit of Black Hawk. The Illi- 
nois State Historical Society at its annual meeting in 1909, appointed a 
special committee "To mark the route of Lincoln's Army Trail from 
Beardstown to mouth of Rock river", and Mr. William A. Meese re- 
ported that Hon. Frank O. Lowden had offered a gift of $750.00 to be 
used in marking the trail. The committee left its task unfinished — 
probably left it without having started work on it, and after a few years, 
further mention of the committee was dropped. 

Governor John Reynolds speaking of the march of the Illinois vol- 
unteers, says : "In this volunteer army were many of the most distin- 
guished men of the State. * * The brigade organized, and marching 
in the large prairies toward Rock Island, made a grand display". (My 
Own Times, p. 214), and Gov. Thomas Ford, speaking of the same 
cavalcade, says: "This was the largest military force of Illinoisans 
which had ever been assembled in the State, and made an imposing 
appearance as it traversed the then unbroken wilderness of prairie". 
(History of Illinois, Ford, p. 112.) 

It was on this trail also, directly south of Blackhawk's village, on 
the south side of Rock river, that the Illinois Volunteers, including 
Capt. Abraham Lincoln, were sworn into the Federal service, doubt- 
less Capt. Lincoln's first federal oath. It was administered here by 
General Henry Atkinson of the regular army. 

In 1828 Col. P. St. G. Cooke was ordered to take a detachment of 
recruits to Fort Crawford, at Prairie du Chien, Wis. One of his boats 
was left on the rocks of the Des Moines rapids, and it was necessary 
for some of his soldiers to march afoot. He says: "At a point fifty 
miles below Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) I heard that there was a 
trail to Fort Armstrong, which cut off much of the distance, so I imme- 
diately ordered my adventurous land detachment to take it". (Scenes 
and Adventures in the Army" by Cooke, 1859. Chapter III.) 

The history of Alercer and Henderson counties, Hill & Co., 1883, 
at p. 25, speaking of the Black Hawk war, says : "The brigade was ac- 
companied by Gov. Reynolds, and Joseph Duncan was Brigadier Gen- 
eral. On the 15th of June (1831), this the largest body of military 
that had ever been seen in the State, left their encampment at Rushville 
and marched to within a few miles of the Sac village. This line of 
march took them directly through the central part of Mercer county, 
and the exact route is still known and pointed out. It being the old 
Indian trail (which was nearly on the Henderson and Warren county 
line) and extending through Mercer county northward between Aledo 
and Joy". 

In the history of Mercer and Henderson counties, mentioned above 
at p. 300, history of Perryton township is the following regarding this 
trail : "Besides their knives and arrowheads of which numbers are still 
found, the Indians left no mark save the great trail their tribes followed 
in cutting off the bend of the Mississippi to the west. * * * jj^ ^345 there 
were still five or six distinct, deep worn paths throughout the entire dis- 




Another View of the Camp Site of 1832 111. Vol. looking toward mouth of 
Rock River. All the Historians of that day speak of this Camp as heing at 
"the mouth of Rock River." It is 3 Miles S. E. of the mouth of Rock River. 
The Oquawka to Rock Island Indian and Military trail passed through this 
Camp Site. 



^ 


4 












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i 


^^^ 





Camp site on the open prairie of the Illinois Volunteers, which included 
Captain A. Lincoln and his company May 7-10, 1832. They were sworn into 
the Federal service here. The hill in background is Black Hawk's Watch 
Tower. 




The Army Ford Across Edwards River. 



17 

tance, and were the guiding path to Rock Island and Oquawka, the two 
points where it left the river. This trail entered the town (Perryton 
township) on the south side of 31 ; thence along the divide to Camp 
Creek, crossing at a ford in 19 ; then along the ridge through 20 and 
17, and nearly diagonal through the north half of 9, southeast of 4, and 
northwest of 3". 

Attorney Isaac Newton Bassett of Aledo, says: (Interview 
Feb. 16, 1916.) "I came to Aledo in 1852. The Indian trail crossed 
Edwards river on the section line between Sections eleven and twelve 
in Millersburg township. That is what they call the Army Ford. It is 
right at the road. There is a riffle there, and that is where they crossed. 
This was the Indian trail and is the same trail on which the military 
crossed in 1831 and in '32 when Abraham Lincoln was with them". 

Principal Norbury W. Thornton of Geneseo Collegiate Institute 
said (Interview, Nov., 1915) : "My father took me to the Edwards 
river ford when I was seven years of age and said this was where 
Lincoln and the army of the Black Hawk War crossed". 

On our way to see the Army Ford on Edwards river we stopped 
at the nearest farm house southeast of the ford and made inquiry to see 
if the local people knew of its historic interest. Here we met Mr. John 
Noonan, who had lived in the vicinity for seventy years. To our ques- 
tion as to whether such a place was anywhere around, he promptly 
replied : "It's right down there", pointing in its direction, "right by 
the 'Downey bridge'. It's right below the bridge on the west side of 
the road". Mr. Daniel Laughlin who was present said Mrs. Margaret 
McGovern, now deceased, a sister of Mr. John Noonan, told him that 
they used to ford Edwards river at this old ford before a bridge was 
built, and that this ford was on the old Indian trail". We were referred 
to Mr. Joseph Terry, at Millersburg, Mercer County, for further infor- 
mation. Mr. Terry was born in 1841 and came to Millersburg in 1850. 
They corroborated what the others had said of the ford, and said : 
"Go east one mile from Millersburg, then south one and one-half miles 
to the river. You will see the Army Ford to your right, just below the 
bridge". 

To reach this interesting spot from Aledo, the county seat of 
Mercer county, go west two and one-half miles, then north one and 
one-half miles. It is in the east edge of Section eleven, Millersburg 
township. 

John Montgomery (formerly of Edgington township. Rock Island 
county), said: "That trail crossed by our farm and my brother Dan 
and I broke up a good part of it with a breaking plow. I can point out 
to you where it was. The trail was as plain — there were from four to 
a dozen tracks, and in places they were worn a foot deep. When the 
first settlers came here they used that trail for their first roads. There 
was no other road in the country. It ran from New Boston or Keiths- 
burg to Fort Armstrong". 

"One time — they used to tell the story, there were only a few 
whites anywhere around and they had an Indian scare. The settlers 
gathered together at New Boston for defense, and they wanted to send 
to Ft. Armstrong for help, but there were so few men they felt they 



18 

couldn't spare any of them. A boy 12 or 14 years old said if he could 
have a certain pony he would go. They got him the pony and he was 
escorted out onto the prairie by the men, and then he took to the Indian 
trail and headed for the fort. When he got near the Cooper settlement, 
in Mercer county, he saw some Indians and, of course, he was scared 
and he ran his pony all the rest of the way to Fort Armstrong". 

Mr. Montgomery, in Nov., 1916, took us to see Mr. Eli Perry 
who, he said, would be able to assist in locating the trail in Mercer 
county. 

Mr. Eli Perry of Perryton township, Mercer county, said : "1 
have lived within a quarter to a half mile of this Indian trail all these 
years since I came here in 1843, at the age of two years. T know the 
old Indian trail and can pretty nearly follow it all the way from New 
Boston to Taylor Ridge. The trail was not used as a wagon road, but 
was used as a guide to go by. It wouldn't make a good road unless 
you were afoot or horseback. The trail led to the Bay Island where the 
hunting was excellent". 

Camp Creek is in Mercer county and is so named because the Illi- 
nois soldiers in the Black Hawk War made their noon-day camp there 
on the way from Oquawka to Black Hawk's village. Mr. Perry took us 
to Camp Creek, in Section nineteen, Perryton township, and taking us 
to the north side of the creek, at one hundred paces west of the public 
highway, said : "There used to be a walnut stump right here, and the 
story we got from way back, was that the walnut tree was cut down 
by the Black Hawk war soldiers, so it fell across the creek and they used 
it for a bridge. From the ford southwards and slightly southwesterly, 
across pasture land, to the crest of the hill, a distance of perhaps forty 
rods, one can walk in this historic old trail, for it is from a foot to two 
feet deep, and from about six feet to ten feet in width at the top, and as 
plainly to be seen as any natural object. It was deepest on the hill 
side where it had doubtless been washed by the rains. Mr. Perry 
said this was the Indian and military trail under consideration. It is 
on the Mrs. William VanMeter farm, in Sections nineteen and thirty, 
Perryton township. To find the trail, start at the fence, west side of 
the road, south of the creek, and go due west 100 paces. To the north- 
wards Mr. Perry pointed out the course of the trail as crossing the pub- 
lic highway near the foot of the hill and passing diagonally up the hill, 
in a northeasterly direction. 

In volume "A" of Roads, of the records of the county clerk's 
office of Rock Island county, at page 40 thereof, is a plat filed in 1856 
showing the public road in Section thirty in Black Hawk township, on 
which the crest of the ridge in the southeast quarter of the said section 
is designated as "Army Ridge Bluffs", and the creek below is called 
"Army Trail Creek". At the present, however, the creek is called Tur- 
key Hollow creek, and the bluff is Turkey Hollow hill. The public 
road leads from the high ridge down to the bottom land and to the 
Black Hawk village site, six miles to the northeast. We were taken to 
this "Army Ridge Bluff" by Mr. Almon A. Buffum of Edgington, 
Illinois, and William H. Miller who resides two and a half miles south 
of the spot under consideration. Mr. Buffum's account of the trail 




The Ford at Camp Creek. Messrs John Montgomery and Eli Perry are 
standing where the large Walnut tree was felled across the stream for the 
crossing of the 111. Vols, in the Black Hawk War. 













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13 


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The Indian and Military Trail immediately south of Camp e'reek. Mr. 
Montgomery at the left is standing in the trail. 




The Indian and Military Trail on the hillside at Turkey Hollow, showing 
that the highways of the Indian suffered no less from heavy rains than do 
ours of today. Messrs. Miller and Buffum appear in the picture. 




Traces of the Indian and Military trail in Turkey Hollow, 
used by the early settlers as a public highway. 



It was also 



19 

at this point was as follows : "There was a tree known as the "Lin- 
coln Tree" just at the edge of the bluff north of the school (which 
stands in the southwest corner of the s. e. quarter of section 30 in 
Black Hawk township). It was an ill-shaped tree, run over by 
wagons and the bark peeled off. I grubbed this tree out and planted 
potatoes there. It would be just south and a little west of Vetter's 
house. There was an old road there which I broke up and planted 
to potatoes. This road or trail was known as the Indian trail and also 
as the military trail, along which the soldiers came during the Black 
Hawk war, and the reason the tree was called the "Lincoln Tree" was 
because Lincoln had come past there as a soldier in that war. This 
road or trail came by the "Scotch" Taylor place and came on along 
the top of the ridge, sometimes on one side of the present road and 
sometimes on the other. It passed down the hill from where the tree 
was and on down across where the ditch or creek now is. There 
wasn't any ditch there at the time I knew it first; only a swale there. 
I could locate the old trail and location of the tree and will go with 
you some day and point it out to you," which he did in April, 1916." 
This place was the easiest way off the ridge. 

Mr. Miller's account was as follows : "I came here in 1847 at 
the age of sixteen months. When I was a boy I used to go to Rock 
Island over this trail driving oxen. * * * Our road was over this 
trail all the way down Turkey Hollow and on right across where the 
sand and gravel pit of the Peoria & Rock Island Railway is (at the 
west end of the line between Section 22 and 27, Black Hawk town- 
ship) and on east to Milan over the ridge on the bottom. The road was 
on an east and west line, at about the middle of the south half of the 
south half of Section twenty-two in Black Hawk township, and in the 
southeast part of the southeast quarter of Section twenty-two is 
where the military camp of 1832 was, when Lincoln and the 1800 
Illinois soldiers came to fight Black Hawk". ]\Ir. Miller's knowledge 
covered about ten miles of the old trail, beginning at the Jahns' farm 
at the northeast corner of Section fourteen in Edgington township, 
crossing the public road south of the public school which is in Section 
Eleven, Edgington township, and continuing northeasterly passed 
east of the farm buildings on the "Scotch" Taylor place, in the south- 
east quarter of Section twelve, Edgington township, where the public 
road is now. From that point the old trail kept the top of the ridge, 
sometimes on one side, and at times on the other side of the present 
public road as it passes northward to the "Army Trail Bluff". It is 
a narrow ridge, some places being only a stone's throw across. 

Messrs. Buffum and Miller personally conducted us to the "Army 
Ridge Bluff" and showed us the old, abandoned public highway on 
the hillside which now is enclosed as pasture land. Both declared 
this road was originally the Indian and military trail ; that when the 
pioneers settled this country they had no roads other than this trail 
and therefore used it. The rains washed the old highway considerably, 
and a re-location of the public highway was made a few yards to the 
north of the old, and the old trace is sodded over, an olden days relic 
which might well be preserved because of its historic interest. 



20 

William S. Parks of Rock Island, and his brother, John Parks of 
Reynolds, Illinois, in October and November, 1915, took us to where 
the trail used to be on the "Prairie Home Farm" in Edgington town- 
ship. This was in 1915, our first trip to locate Indian trails here- 
abouts. They showed where it passed through the northwest corner 
of the southwest quarter of Section 26. The country here is rolling 
and the trail had from half a dozen to twelve or fifteen parallel traces. 
The rains undoubtedly would wash a worn trail and a new one would 
be made next to it. Mr. William Parks, giving his recollections of 
the trail, said : "We broke prairie here sixty years ago when we were 
little tots, and the trail crossed here. Brother John drove the three 
head 3'oke of oxen and I drove the three rear yoke. We had six 
teams of oxen to the plow". 

Mr. Fred Titterington of Rock Island took us to the east line of 
the northeast quarter of Section twenty-three, where the creek 
crossed the public highway. He expected to find some virgin sod 
there with the trail still visible, but was disappointed. He says he 
saw the trail there as late as 1860, at which time he, with his parents, 
frequently crossed it and he "remembers it as well as if it were yes- 
terday". It was deep on the side hill but on the top of the ridge it 
wasn't as plain". It had about four trails side by side, just south of 
the creek, which it crossed about where is now the public road. Mr. 
Titterington also remembers the location of the Lincoln camp as 
related to him by his Uncle George Crabs of Hamlet, Illinois, as being 
in the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section twenty- 
seven in Black Hawk township. Rock Island county. 

Mr. George Crabs of Hamlet, Illinois, was visited in company 
with his nephew, Mr. Fred Titterington, in December, 1915. Mr. 
Crabs, a nonogenarian, had a memory which as to the early times 
seemed as clear as a bell.. He said: "The first time I saw that Indian 
trail was in August, 1844. I was on my way to camp meeting at 
Sugar Grove. There were four paths, worn a foot deep, three feet 
apart, plain as could be, like a cow path. At that time there was not 
a house on this prairie. I saw mounted soldiers on this trail once. 
They were on their way to Fort Armstrong from Oquawka and were 
traveling on a keen canter four abreast. About seventy years ago 
John Edgington and Jimmy Robinson went to mill where Quincy, 
(111.), is now, and they traveled down that old army trail. They 
drove four or five yoke of cattle and would be gone a week". Mr. 
Crabs gave the route of the trail all the way from Camp Creek in 
Mercer county to within a mile of Black Hawk's village at Rock 
Island, including the Lincoln camp site in the northeast quarter of 
the northeast quarter of Sec. 27. He was hardly in a physical con- 
dition to be taken over the course in person, but his testimony corrob- 
orated, without any suggestion or question on our part, the accounts 
given by men who personally conducted us to places where the trail 
was known to them. 

The reader will notice that two different descriptions are given 
for the Capt. Lincoln Camp site — the camp of the Illinois Volunteers, 
May 7th to 10th, 1832. In reality the two locations are just across 



21 

the public road from each other, and the eighteen hundred men with 
their mounts would probably more than cover both tracts. 

Jacob Harris, December, 1915, of Edgington, said: "Speaking 
of the Indian trail, it went down Turkey Hollow on the east side of 
the present road, the right hand side as you go down the hill. I used 
to play in the Indian trail when I was a boy. We didn't think any- 
thing about it then. There used to be lots of Indians come here in 
my time and I've seen them traveling on the old trail. There was 
more than one Indian trail. The one across Little's farm, east of 
Taylor Ridge, w^as not the main trail. The Indians would have a 
path and they'd follow the leader like sheep. If there were five hun- 
dred of them they'd keep one path. The trail passed right by the old 
Prairie Union school which at that time was a half mile north and a 
quarter of a mile west of where it is now". "The Parks boys, John 
and William, and I used to go to school part way in that trail." Mr. 
Harris' description places the old school where the trail was, at the 
northwest corner of the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 
twenty-six Edgington township, Rock Island county. 

The old "Scotch" Taylor farm is in the southeast quarter of Sec- 
tion twelve, Edgington township. The public road passes northward 
through it. To this place in December, 1915, we were conducted by 
Sam C. Taylor, a son. Mr. Taylor said he remembered the trail very 
well, as it passed through between their farm buildings which are 
located just where the public highway bends northeastwards. He 
said : "There were several tracks of the trail. One time when I was 
a boy a lot of Indians came to our house and mother was trying to 
drive them away with a broom. She was afraid to let them into the 
the house because the men were away. There had been some fencing 
done on the trail and the Indians were asking about the trail. It 
looked to me as if the trail between our buildings in the hollow was 
headed to the high ground which led toward Fancy Creek". 

Ex-Senator William F. Crawford, formerly of Edgington town- 
ship, Rock Island county, said : "Yes, I saw the old Indian and army 
trail very often. I used to see the old, deep ditch-like trail going off 
the point of Turkey Hollow hill and I asked what that was and they 
said, 'Why, that's the trail Lincoln marched over on the way to fight 
Indians. I asked old man Miller, father of William H. Miller, one 
time, and he told me this. 'There was an old tree on the trail which 
had been tramped down and scarred up from being rode over. I've 
been in the cavalry and I know how the brush is tramped down that 
way. The tree was at the top of the hill, just at the bend, or a little 
southwest of the bend. We called it the Lincoln tree, and the trail 
was just as plain as could be and crossed where Turkey Hollow creek 
is now. Then it was just a tiny bit of a ditch with a couple of logs 
in it to drive over. Then we passed on down to the lowlands toward 
Milan, not keeping the section lines at all, but just driving across 
country". We interviewed Mr. Crawford in November. 1916. 

George Washington Griffin of Milan, said (Nov., 1915) : "There 
were several Indian trails. Father and my uncles (the sons of 
Joshua Vandruff) would go out hunting and sometimes they'd go 



22 

out to look for cattle, and we would go sometimes in one direction 
on an Indian trail and sometimes in another direction on an Indian 
trail, and Big Island had different trails that were called Indian trails." 

The village of Milan, Illinois, is situated on the south side of 
Rock River, opposite Black Hawk's village. We called on Mr, Ore- 
gon Pinekley, an octogenarian living at Milan, and an old resident 
there. He said: "There were two trails that met here, one from the 
east and one from the west, but I can't tell you just where they were. 
I know more about the old army trail in Mercer county. When I was 
a boy, we boys used to go swimming in Edwards river at the Army 
Ford. We lived in Millersburg at that time". 

The Oquawka-Rock Island trail as it came within ten or twelve 
miles of Black Hawk's village, had a fork, somewhere southwest of 
where the village of Taylor Ridge stands. It is possible that the loca- 
tion pointed out by Fred Titterington, mentioned above, is a part of the 
east fork. Another spot on this fork was pointed out to us by Deputy 
Sheriff R. E. Little of Milan, located on the farm of his boyhood, pass- 
ing along a line from the southwest corner of the north half of the 
northeast quarter of Section eighteen, Bowling township, Rock Island 
county, thence running diagonally to the northeast corner of Section 
eighteen. Mr. Little said : "The old Indian trail here was at least ten 
feet wide, and there was not a number of them, but just one path, 
which went in a straight line over hill and hollow, and on the hillside 
the water washed a sort of ditch, and part of this, when I saw it last, 
was grown over with grass. This trail could still be seen twenty-five 
years ago. Now it is pretty well obliterated". The field here was 
under cultivation. 

The next point on this fork was given us by C. P. O'Haver of 
Rock Island. It is located at the northwest corner of the northeast 
quarter of Section ten, in Bowling township, two miles due south of 
the camp ground of the Illinois Volunteers of 1832. 

Both the Indians and the soldiers followed the left bank of the 
Rock river in their ascent up-stream, in the 1832 campaign of the 
Black Hawk war. Judge John W. Spencer, who was an acquaintance 
of Black Hawk and who was one of the pioneers who disputed with 
the Indians for possession of their village here, says that : "When 
Black Hawk and his warriors returned in 1832, they kept on the south 
side of Big Island (at the mouth of Rock river), which I had never 
known them to do before". (Reminiscences, p. 44.) 

Gen. Henry Atkinson, writing from Fort Armstrong under date 
of April 13, 1832, says: "They (the band of Sauks under Black 
Hawk) crossed the (Mississippi) river at Yellow Banks * * and are 
now moving up on the east side of Rock river. * * toward the Proph- 
et's village". (Wakefield's Black Hawk War", p. 35.) 

Lieut. Albert Sydney Johnston's diary corroborates the above as 
follows: "April 13. Black Hawk's band was reported this morning 
to be passing up on the east side of Rock river. Their course indicates 
that their movement is upon the Prophet's village". (Life of Gen. 
Albert Sydney Johnston, p. 34.) 



23 

Attorney William Allen of Erie, Ills., says: "There was an 
Indian trail on the other (east) side of Rock river to Prophetstown, 
where there was a little city of Indians, and their lodges were strung 
out, down Rock river for a half mile. At the time of the Black Hawk 
War, Abraham Lincoln with the crowd of his company camped at 
Pink Prairie in the edge of Henry county where he was nearly eaten 
up by the mosquitoes. Lincoln told this to Judge Teets, of Erie. 
Teets was down to do some lobbying regarding a ferry boat across 
Rock river, in 1859, after the Lincoln-Douglas debates". (Interview, 
Aug. 10, 1917.) Nels Anderson, who had lived on an island in Rock 
river, in Coal Valley township, for thirty years, said : "I came here in 

1865, and old man Porter, who came here in 1833, told me 

Lincoln came up on the east side of Rock river on his way to Wiscon- 
sin to fight Black Hawk". (Interview, April 9, 1917.) 

The Illinois Volunteers followed Black Hawk up Rock river over 
the same trail. Black Hawk and his followers were a religious people 
and in the course of their progress would make sacrifices to the Great 
Spirit. Gov. Reynolds, speaking of these evidences, says: "It made 
us sorry to see often at the camp ground of Black Hawk a small dog 
immolated to appease the Great Spirit". (My Own Times, 229.) 

Black Hawk reached Prophetstown, April 26th, as told by Wake- 
field in the following words : "On the 26th Mr. Gratiot saw at a dis- 
tance, about two miles down Rock river, the army of the celebrated 
Black Hawk, consisting of about five hundred Sacs, well armed and 
mounted on fine horses, moving in a line of battle — their appearance 
was terrible in the extreme. Their bodies were painted with white 
clay, with an occasional impression of their hands about their bodies, 
colored black. About their ankles and bodies they wore wreaths of 
straw, which always indicate a disposition for blood". (Wakefield's 
History of the Black Hawk War, p. 38.) 

Prophetstown is on the east bank of Rock river, and is so called 
because it was the village of the Winnebago Prophet, Wa-bo-kie-shiek 
(see Handbook American Indians, Vol. I, p. 886) who was one of the 
foremost of the Indian leaders in the Black Hawk War. This village 
was reached by the Illinois Vols, on May 10th, the same day they 
broke camp near Rock Island. The soldiers had made a march of 
forty miles, and "When they reached Prophetstown they found it de- 
serted, and at once applied the torch to the bark houses and reduced 
them to ashes". (Armstrong, Sauks and the Black Hawk War, p. 309.) 

In the march to Prophetstown both the Indians and the soldiers 
would follow the beaten trail ; in this case the Sauk and Fox trail from 
Milan is now, to the ford across Coal Valley creek, as located by 
Messrs. W. C. Wilson and Alex Craig, and Thomas J. Murphy. At 
the east side of this ford the two trails would part company, the one 
up Rock river continuing due east. 

Thomas J. Murphy said: "An old trail followed right on the 
bank of Rock river going up stream, then there was another trail 
which followed on the high ground right where the yellow barn on 
the Killing estate is". This "yellow barn' 'is due east of the ford, and 
as we walked over the course of this trail of the higher ground, the 



24 

writer found two flint arrow-heads not far from the barn, then as we 
proceeded eastward he began picking up chips of flint until he had 
thirty-three pieces; then seeing the plowed ground was full of them, 
the novelty of it dropped. Mr. Murphy continued: "The wider trail 
kept this ridge, and the one which followed the river bank was a nar- 
rower one and is still there just as it was when I was a boy". (April 
9, 1917.) 

The next point which we believed to be on this same trail up Rock 
river, was about five miles easterly, namely the ford across Green 
river. We located it by the process of elimination, under the guidance 
of Messrs. Craig and Wilson, above mentioned. Mr. Craig said: 
"Lincoln? Right here. This is the only place they could cross. This 
is the old Indian trail right across here. There is no ford between 
here and Rock river. I've been along it hundreds of times hunting 
and fishing and strolling", to which Mr. Wilson added: "We've 
seined every foot of it from Colona to the mouth of Green river, and 
I know there was no other ford". Mr. Craig mentioned that in places 
the river was twelve to sixteen feet deep, to which Mr. Wilson replied : 
"We seined through all of it just the same". 

The ford is being used by the farmer today. On the right bank 
of Green river, a few rods from the ford, is a farm house and barns. 
Our two guides said the house was built on top of a large Indian 
mound and when they dug the cellar they found a space walled in with 
rock "round or oblong" and they found skeletons, "either sixteen or 
twenty-three, I don't know which, and lots of implements". Mr. Craig 
said: "I was told about it by Gully (Gulliver) Adams and Sheldon 
Hodge. They got the rock out and told me of it". 

These men also told of a "Kitchen heap" on the left (east) bank 
of Rock river, a short distance above this Green river ford, "A mile 
below the old Colona ferry", which they found thirty-five or forty 
years ago. They "found brown Indian pottery, implements, needles, 
deer horns and bones, and, mostly clam shells". 

Green river ford is not on the public highway. To find it, take 
the "Geneseo road" between Moline bridge over Rock river, and 
Brier Blufif ; when you come to the section line between sections fif- 
teen and sixteen, Colona township, Henry county, follow this line 
north to Green river (a distance of a little over a half mile) then fol- 
low the river down stream until you come to the ford, a distance of 
perhaps twenty rods, or thereabouts, northwest of the section line 
where it strikes the river. 

Rock River was a favorite among our aboriginals. Continuing 
up stream, passing the old Colona ferry site (a fine bridge is there 
now), and about five miles farther up stream, passing the primitive 
Cleveland ferry, and five miles farther up stream, the old Angell's 
ferry, also a relic of pioneer days, one finds just above the last men- 
tioned ferry and on the east side of the river, other remains of Indian 
occupation. One day on a hike with our band boys, we found there 
along a strip of higher land beside the river, a number of fragments of 
Indian pottery, a piece of a broken iron tomahawk, a stone celt, and ten 
well formed flint arrow-heads, and there are numerous pieces of chipped 
flints. 




THE FORD AT GREEN RIVER. 









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25 

The writer makes no pretense of knowing the exact course of the 
Indian trail up Rock river beyond the part located by Mr. Murphy, 
and the Green river ford located by Messrs. Wilson and Craig-. En- 
quiry was made for information, but thus far without success. The 
evidences of habitations above mentioned, are included here, because 
they prove that the land was occupied, and there is no such occupation 
without its complement of highways or trails. 

In addition to the above one should expect to find trails radiating 
from Davenport, Iowa, to the north, west, and probably southwest, 
for the Sauk and Fox United Nation held Iowa by right of conquest 
(Kan. Hist. Coll. XI, 334), and during the latter years of their great- 
ness they had their principal villages, opposite Davenport, where Rock 
Island now stands. Presiding over the Fox village was Wapella, 
Principal Chief of the Foxes, while the adjoining Sauk village had 
such men of note as Pash-e-pa-ho, Keokuk and Black Hawk. The 
writer merely suggests this as a subject for Trails-Hunters, who 
should begin their quest at once, while information can be had at first 
hand. One would expect to find a short cut northwards from Daven- 
port to the Dubuque mines, approximately along the "Dubuque Road", 
and as to a west-bound trail, the following extract from the reminis- 
cences of M. D. Hauberg may prove of value: "The next place we 
broke (virgin prairie in 1850) was for Claus Vieths, about seven miles 
west of Davenport. The second day we were there an Indian came 
along and stopped. When we came to the road he hailed us. The 
boss was afraid but I went up to him. He was riding an Indian pony, 
and he carried a rifle, a revolver and a bow and arrows. The pony's 
bit, the stirrups and the rifle were silver plated. He asked me how far 
it was to Davenport. While he stood here he would sometimes look 
toward the west. Then he went in that direction and was gone about 
ten minutes, when he returned with the whole tribe. There must 
have been two hundred of them. They had ponies running loose with 
baskets on each side, a papoose in each basket, and some were carry- 
ing the tents". 







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